City of Boulder considers what to do with airport: "Tradeoffs in every one of these scenarios"

The city of Boulder is looking at a range of possibilities for the future of its small airport. The property on the northeast side of town is nearly 180 acres of land in a city where every inch has value. 

"It's kind of a place where a lot of people in Boulder don't really know it's here," said Scott Griffith, assistant manager for Journeys Aviation, a flight school at the airport. "It's great. You're sitting next to the foothills."

Its location is close to larger airports, Vance Brand in Longmont and Rocky Mountain Metropolitan in Broomfield. Bringing in commercial air traffic would be very difficult since its proximity to the mountains means there's no instrument approach needed for heavier jets.

The airport has generally been under the radar for a lot of people in its 95-year history. But there have been concerns about noise and the lead fuel used by smaller planes. The airport now has voluntary noise abatement procedures Griffith says the vast majority of pilots observe.

Lead remains a worry for some. 

"And there doesn't seem to be a plan to deal with the leaded gasoline beyond hopefully we get unleaded gasoline in five years and that's a significant number of people who are going to be exposed," said Bryn Grunwald, who attended an open house on the possibilities for the airport Tuesday evening. 

She would like to see the land used for housing instead of planes to help with Boulder's affordable housing crisis.  

Others looked over four different possible scenarios: Keeping the existing airport with enhanced maintenance, keeping the airport with aviation improvements, keeping the airport with neighborhood-serving uses and limited housing, and decommissioning the airport and creating a new neighborhood. 

The city is asking people to answer a questionnaire with intentions of bringing to the city council early next year the pluses and minuses of various ideas. 

"There's tradeoffs in every one of these scenarios certainly," said Allison Moore-Farrell, a senior transportation planner for the city.

There are issues with closing the airport, including the possibility of having to repay the FAA for grants received over the years. 

"That would be further conversations with the FAA and further study there," said Moore-Farrell. The amount has the potential to run well into the millions and some in Boulder have claimed as high as $100 million. "We do not know that number yet."

Many of the people who showed up for the open house were curious to see the proposals. "I do see it as an asset. I think that it can serve so many different parts of the community," said resident Lisa Chase. "I think that getting rid of it entirely and putting housing there is not going to be the best option for everyone." 

She liked the idea of adding an educational element for young people thinking of going into aviation which has many different kinds of jobs. 

"There's so much that can be done there and there's also a lot of opportunity to make more things happen there." Griffith, a former teacher also thinks there's opportunity with education or even businesses like restaurants. "There's so much more that this airport can offer the city from education to commercial businesses and not just more flights. Because I know that that's a sticking point for a lot of people."